Who doesn’t love a gummy candy? This stretchy, chewy concoction is a staple in our household and my kids are absolutely nuts about it. As hands-on parents, my wife and I prefer homemade treats whenever possible; that way, we know exactly what and how much of it is going on in the preparation.

For the past year or so, I’ve been trying to find a good candy recipe that has the right ‘gumminess’ to it; most recipes rely on store-bought flavored gelatin, which, to be honest, doesn’t ‘feel’ that good. Obviously, I took the Gummy Challenge head-on and came up with this really good (and somewhat healthy) recipe after a few failed attempts. The gummies turned out surprisingly chewy and tangy, with a good stretchy consistency. Here, I am presenting two variations of the recipe; ‘Citrus Blast’ and ‘Very Berry’. But before you proceed any further, pay heed to my words: once you pop, you can’t stop!

Tools and Utensils:

Silicone molds (easy to remove the gummies once set and no need to grease – available online or in stores)

Pour cold juice into a saucepan and add corn syrup to it; mix well till both are uniformly combined

Add gelatin to the juice and whisk it all up so that no lumps are visible

Set the mixture aside for 5 to 7 minutes to let the gelatin bloom

Put the saucepan on a medium-low flame and add the sugar to the gelatin mixture; cook for 8 to 9 mins, stirring constantly

Take the pan off the heat and mix in the oil, essence and citric acid powder

If you want to use food colors, divide the liquid into separate bowls, add a few drops of color to each bowl and mix well

Using a tablespoon or a dropper, pour in the hot mixture into silicone molds; work fast as you don’t want the liquid to start solidifying

Refrigerate the molds for 90 minutes

Remove gummies from the molds and place them on a tray

Keep the tray in an open place, covered with a thin cloth, for 36 hours (larger candies) or 8 hours (tiny candies/gummy bears) to let the sugar crystallize – this will give the gummies their stretchy texture

Keep them in a cool dry place (use a ziploc bag or an airtight container) to preserve freshness; for the gummies to really feel like the store-bought ones, consume them after 7-8 days

Consume them within 1 week

Try going insane with whatever tickles your fancy; just substitute the juice, oil, and essence to experiment with interesting combos. Do share your exploits in the comments section below so that others can try them too. Enjoy!

NOTE FOR VEGETARIANS: Try using 10 grams Agar-Agar (also known as China Grass) powder as a substitute for the gelatin. The texture of the gummies would be slightly brittle as agar coagulates differently. Alternatively, you can use vegetarian gelatin/gels available in the market. I haven’t tried china grass for this recipe but I’m sure they’d taste great. If you do try a vegetarian variant, please let me know!

Oranges taste great on their own; I hardly know anyone who doesn’t like them. They are a mind-blowing combination with chocolate, second only to mint, and are used extensively in desserts. But never in a million years had I expected to fall head-over-heals in love with oranges in an entrée. I’ve been obsessed with Orange Chicken ever since I tried it some four odd years ago at a Chinese Restaurant.

Like all recipes I’m obsessed with, I tried recreating this sweet and sour concoction with a hint (subjective) of spice last weekend. After some experimentation, I got the flavor profile I was looking for; in retrospect, I should have left out a few ingredients that gave the dish some outlandish undertones, a clashing after-taste, if you may. The recipe below doesn’t include those ingredients so you should be able to enjoy a mouth-watering Orange Chicken. I strongly recommend serving this gravy with Chinese Fried Rice (leave me a comment if you want me to post a recipe).

Ingredients:

½ kg chicken (cut into one-inch cubes)

½ cup + ½ cup fresh orange juice (I used navel oranges)

½ tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp fresh orange zest

5 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

1” cube of ginger (finely chopped)

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp chili sauce

1 tbsp white vinegar

I tsp Worcestershire sauce

¼ tsp white pepper powder

½ tsp chili flakes (optional)

½ tsp black pepper powder

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp chicken powder

1 tbsp corn flour

5-7 dried red chilies (optional – I used African bird’s eye chili)

1 tbsp peanuts (salted and roasted)

2-3 spring onion stalks (one-inch pieces)

½ green bell pepper (medium sized – cut into cubes)

1 onion (medium sized – cut into cubes)

¼ tsp MSG (a.k.a. ajino moto)

3 tbsp sesame oil

Pinch of salt (optional)

2 tsp honey (optional)

Method:

Mix chicken, black pepper and corn flour and set it aside

Heat sesame oil in a pan and add in garlic and ginger

After a minute or so, add chicken to the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes

Mix in chili flakes, onion powder, garlic powder, MSG, and white pepper and let it sit for a minute

Add in ½ cup orange juice and lemon juice and let it cook for 2 minutes

Add soy sauce, chili sauce and vinegar to the chicken and cook on high flame

Once the sauces have dried out a bit, add in peanuts, dried chilies and the remaining ½ cup orange juice to it

Obsession is a dangerous thing to have and once you get something in your head, it is impossible to let go of. For me, recreating restaurant recipes at home is one such obsession and at times, it drives me to the edge of insanity.

Nando’s Peri-bites has been an OCD of mine ever since I first tried it some five years back. These are deep-fried green chilies stuffed with a succulent, cheesy chicken filling that just melts in your mouth (and sets it ablaze). A few years back, I successfully created a Peri-bites recipe that tasted much better than the original; there were two problems I consistently faced:

the coating kept falling off

the filling kept oozing out

Not all chilies were affected, though, but a sizeable percentage (around 60-70%) had one or both of these flaws. Therefore, I kept on going back to Nando’s for my Peri-bites fix – my fellow Peri-junkies should be able to relate to this. On one of my more recent visits to Nando’s, I found several issues with my appetizer:

lack of chicken in the filling

the taste was a bit ‘off’

the coating wasn’t as crisp as it should be

With a broken heart and a huge disappointment (that would put Mt. Everest to shame), I put my culinary skills to the test and gave the recipe one more try. This recipe that I’m about to share is an absolute 110% improvement on the Nando’s original. I promise you will not be disappointed with the results.

Mix in the peri-peri sauce once the chicken is tender and turn off the heat after cooking for a minute; let the chicken cool

After the chicken has cooled, add in cream cheese, mayonnaise, cheddar, mozzarella, and peri-peri sauce; mix well

To fill the chilies, make a T-shaped incision from the base of the chili (as shown in the picture below) and take out the seeds

Take about 1-2 teaspoon of the chicken filling (make sure there are chicken chunks in each portion) and stuff it gently into the chili; do not over stuff as the incision may not close and the filling may come out during frying

In a bowl, mix the egg, milk, corn flour and all-purpose flour

Dip each stuffed chili into the egg mix and roll it into the bread-crumbs; repeat this step twice for each chili

Put a pan with oil on medium heat for deep-frying

Gently drop each chili into the oil; try not to touch them for a minute to let the coating stick to the chili

Cook them for a few more minutes till the chilies are crisp and golden

Serve them immediately with a peri-peri sauce of your liking!

So what are you waiting for? Get started on a batch right away; it’s sure to knock your socks off and set your head steamin’. I hope you enjoy this recipe; comments would be appreciated!

What a typical Londoner might call a bright sunny day, we, the residents of Dubai, call a well-deserved break from the blistering summer sun that beats (mercilessly) down upon us for a good six months each year (five-and-a-half if we’re lucky). I personally love the Dubai winter, especially because it brings with it, a plethora of fresh seasonal fruits from the Middle eastern region, the most noteworthy of which are the strawberries flown in daily from Egypt.

I couldn’t resist myself from buying a kilogram of these tantalizing berries when I last went grocery shopping. Needless to say, we got tired of eating all these strawberries pretty soon, so I thought of making a refreshing drink out of it. I added some coconut water and lemon syrup to compliment the sweet and sour berries and the drink turned out better than expected.

Here’s the recipe if you want to replicate it at home. It serves two people.

Ingredients

3 cups fresh coconut water (I use yellow Srilankan coconuts as they are a bit on the sweet side)